Outdoor hunt sports are experiencing renewed interest today. In the 1960′s there was an awakening and recognition of a need to return to nature and traditional ways of living. Those who left the city, returning to the country, discovered two things. First, a lot of folks still lived in the country where hunting and fishing were a way of life, not just an activity during vacation. Second, there is great aesthetic, even spiritual satisfaction from harvesting what you consume from your own garden, from the woods, and from the lakes and the ocean.

Hunting large and small game has been at the core of a natural lifestyle forever. Although it is a classic traditional American recreation, it is much more than that. Each year millions of parents take to the woods with their kids and grandchildren to enjoy the outdoors, to learn about wildlife and to teach them how to hunt and fish, and to appreciate and respect nature and our place in it. If you ask a wide cross section of the population you’ll hear that many of their best memories are of hunting and fishing with dad and grandpa.

Hunting rabbits, ducks and squirrels put food on the table for our great grand-parents and grandparents. It was a way of life then and still is.

If you pick up an outdoors or hunting magazine there are a lot of pages devoted to deer hunting. One hunter is likely to ask another, “Did you bag a deer this year?” That’s a little misleading. Today the most widely-hunted game animals in the country, now and for generations, have been rabbits and squirrels. There are a number of good reasons for this. These animals are everywhere, widely distributed, abundant, easy to bag and prepare, and they’re delicious.

Rabbits and hares are found virtually everywhere throughout North America and into Central America. Every state has at least one species. Most states have more.

Rabbits are highly adaptive. They’re found in most every environment. As a result they are often abundant. While all species eat only vegetable matter, their diet is flexible. What they eat depends on their home territory. They have a deserved reputation for eating just about anything, sometimes everything. When food is plentiful, rabbit populations explode. Hunters can count on finding them near agricultural areas.

Rabbits are not true nocturnal feeders. They feed at dawn and dusk when both night and daylight predators have difficulty seeing. That makes those twilight hours the best times for us to hunt them. When food is readily available and predators are few, rabbits become less alert and are fairly easily taken, even by less experienced hunters.

Rabbits, like all small game, should be field dressed as soon as possible so the meat doesn’t become tainted. They are fairly easy to prepare for cooking. Skinning them is not a major chore, but is easier before they become cold or frozen.

Rabbits, squirrels and some other small game can contract tularemia, a bacterial infection, transmitted from ticks. Gloves should be worn when skinning and preparing them. The meat should always be fully cooked prior to eating it.

Squirrels are the second most-hunted game animal in North America, for most of the same reasons as rabbits. Hunters focus almost exclusively on the three dominant species of tree squirrels, of which the eastern and western gray squirrels are the most available.

Like rabbits, squirrels will adapt their diet to what’s available. They can also become pests to farm crops.

Most states confine hunting to the Fall season, but a few have a Spring hunting season, as well. Wildlife management departments in those states say that two hunting seasons have no negative effect on the populations.

Squirrel is very easy to prepare for cooking. The meat is delicious. There are dozens of traditional recipes, many with distinctly regional accents and ingredients.

Much has been said and written to praise the many merits of small game hunting. It emphasizes a close relationship with and appreciation of the natural world in which we live, It teaches responsibility, tradition and strengthens family bonds. One of it’s greatest rewards is the simple pleasure of sitting down to a meal of food you’ve grown and game you’ve brought home and cooked.

If you can hunt, there’s no need to fear the higher costs of living today. You will be self-reliant. Take along a practical outdoor survival knife just in case you need it. Afterward, your game will make a great meal.

Just the other day I was out hiking with a few of my friends in the mountains. We happened to come across a big pile of droppings that had been left by a very large big game animal. At first we were stumped as to what it could’ve been. The shape of the droppings looked like elk but the pile was way to big to be elk. So we were kind of left dumfounded for a few minutes, then it hit us that it was left by a big moose. And about an hour later that theory was confirmed. As we spotted the culprit a few hundred yards down the trail slowly grazing along.

The reason that it stumped us was because we’ve been hiking and hunting this same area for about 15+ years and have never seen elk this high before but it was not uncommon to see moose on this trail. However the droppings looked very similar if not almost an exact match in shape to elk. And as we continued hiking we began to look out for other droppings to see if we could identify them. We did come across some other droppings that were also huge, but were separated instead of bunched up like elk or moose and were much more oval shaped. And we knew that those could have only been left by a big mule deer buck. Also it was way too high on the mountain to be elk and a moose would also never venture that high. However they were big enough that they could’ve been elk if the shape wasn’t a dead give away.

So why is it important for us hunters to know what the droppings of the animals that we hunt look like? There are a few reasons but one of the obvious reasons is so that you know which type of big game animals are or aren’t in the area. Especially if it’s a new area to you. If you live out west then there are a variety of big game animals to hunt that could possibly be living in the same area. But usually where the elk are the deer aren’t – at least in Utah. So you may be scouting out a new area for mule deer and it may be an area where the majority of the animals living there are elk. So not an ideal place for you to hunt mule deer. As a matter of fact the place that I hunt elk every year has very few if any mule deer. I’m very surprised if and when I do happen to see mule deer in this area. And it’s usually only one or two does every couple of years that are just passing through. But the area looks like it could be a great place for mule deer.

Another reason is because when you find fresh droppings which we all do, you want to know which animal just left that pile. It can definitely aid you in filling your tag. I’ve killed several animals by first finding their fresh droppings then making a stalk on them.

Some big game’s droppings look very similar so it’s good to know the difference between all of them.

I recommend doing an image search on the internet for the various kinds of droppings left by all of the big game animals in North America. It’s also fun just to know which animal’s droppings you’re looking at whether they’re elk, deer, moose, mountain lion, bear or coyote. I learned each animal’s droppings by my father teaching me as we would be out hunting or hiking. This was way back before the Internet though. Now we can easily do a search and find hundreds of great photos.

Be safe and good hunting my friends.

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Looking for fun Kids PS3 Games? You might be checking around to find some games that are not only fun, but appropriate for kids. Here is a list of the top-selling, highly rated games that have either an “E” or “E-10″ rating – they’re great games for either kids or entire families:

1. Little Big Planet for PS3 – This game started to truly become popular during the holidays of 2008, and it’s popularity has only increased since. It’s not only a challenging game but it’s hysterical – the main character is “Sockboy” who is basically a knitted sock – players can modify the character to their own unique identities, then create their own worlds and play within them. This game is easily controlled by even very young players and is great for some serious laughs.

2. Disney Pure for PS3 – For kids who love off-road racing games, this game is a real thrill. It’s extremely lifelike, complete with real locations and plenty of huge jumps – lots of adventure and some real “hold your breath” thrill rides!

3. Lego Indiana Jones for PS3 – This is one of the more creative and fun video games – no matter what platform is being used. It’s got not only Lego characters, but players are prompted to use Legos as part of their strategy to win the levels of the game. Each “level” is based on a different Indiana Jones film.

4. Wall-E for PS3 – Even though this game has received some “complaints” from some professional gaming organizations as having “lack of challenge” it’s a great game for kids – especially very young ones who love the movie, “Wall-E”. The scenes in the game are often based on the environments from the movie – young kids have a great time with it, and it’s a good “intro” game for smaller children.

5. Monopoly for PS3 – Even though this is a great game for kids, it’s actually geared more toward entire family play. Up to four people can play at the same time, and generally the game is played in the traditional Monopoly way – but with a few modern twists to make it much more entertaining.

These are the Kids PS3 games in 2009 that are appropriate for children (some of them for kids 10 years or older) – that also have good overall reviews and are known for their great entertainment value.

Renting video games online is the single best way to try video games before you buy. Rent video game online services keep costs down: With many game prices starting at $30 and going as high as $50 and even higher, paying such high prices for video games that might be less than what you expected can be just too big a gamble. Even though gamers can view “walkthroughs” screen shots online, and other online game samples are available to take a look at how a game works, there is nothing like actual hands on playing to find out whether it’s something you will love, like or hate.

Just like movie rentals, video games are available to rent from many or most movie rental companies, along with some game stores and online as well. The big problem with renting form a local store, though, is that they rarely have a good selection, and it can be very expensive.

As a result, being able to rent video game online is making a big splash. Video game rental is the ultimate in convenience and cost savings. Video game rental means you don’t have to buy a game for $30 or more, but you can try games before buying to make sure it’s a game you want to keep. Just like services like NetFlix or Blockbuster’s movie service through the mail, game rental companies are springing up too.

For teens and older gamers, trying before buying can keep from spending hard-earned money on games that turn out to be duds. Gamers can try nearly every game that’s on the market. And many video game rental companies let you keep the game you want to buy at a discount.

As a parent, online video game rental can be a godsend. Even young gamers now have access to game systems like GameCube. If you have no idea about content of games or which games were any good, video game rental can be a great way to go. Renting games first, you are able to view games before allowing your children to play them, and find out if they are too frightening, or violent or otherwise not appropriate.

Even using the rating system set out by the gaming industry doesn’t always help. One mom explained it this way: “We had one game called Super Smash Brothers that was rated E-10+ meaning better for older kids over ten. But we felt it was fine -just cartoon violence. But another game rated E-10+, the X-Men game, was so violent and bloody that if we hadn’t been able to rent it first we would have been stuck with a game we were not going to let our son watch!” She saved about $50 in game purchasing costs by not having to buy!

The companies that let you rent video game online have incredible selections of games, and have them for every platform on the market – handheld game systems like the Game Boy or Nintendo DS, through GameCube, and the high end too like Xbox, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. You have many games to choose from. It an be much cheaper than renting from the local store because you won’t pay late fees or shipping; just send back the games when you are through (and you can send back the game that are really terrible right away!) But best of all, many game services offer credits that add up as you continue your subscription. These credits can be applied toward buying games. When you find a game you like, you can usually just keep it and they will send you the box and inserts, with free shipping. In just one sample of purchase pricing, a game that retails for $50 could be purchased for $27 after applying credits and discounts – a really great deal all around!

For gamers that have multiple game systems, such as console as well as handheld, it helps to be able to choose games for short rental periods when going on vacation for example. Most of the time, games are available for all game platforms. For the games you want to rent, you can add them to a “queue” or list, and when one is returned, the next one is sent out. A money savings and less hassle too.

Rent video game online service is a great way to try out games before spending the ever-higher prices to buy them, and can even let you purchase a game at a discount. Take a free trial today – save cash and play all the games you’ve always wanted to try!

I have talked about this topic before, but it was in brief. This time I will provide more details about how to describe the requirement and how to shortlist the things that you will need to ask to the developers for deciding on the team and also to convert your game idea into reality, via iPad Game Development or iPhone Game Development. If you are new, I work in a well known Game Development company Morpheous and I share my experience with development and also with clients over here, so my experience can be useful to you when you make any development decisions and invest into one.

When you have an idea, you make sure you write it down, this will enable you to go through the raw idea in future if you lose your way in between, as especially when it is about objective of the game and story line. Once you write down your initial thoughts, you can then search some existing games and see if any of them matches what you want to get developed or if not see if it partially matches, this will provide you information on how they have executed the idea and also how the story line plays out. This will also give you an idea of overall representation of the game. iPad Game Development and iPhone Game Development can be an easy venture if you are quite clear of what you want and also have things in written format. Ensuring your objective and features of the game pass to developer on right note is very important, this will make sure that the journey of development will be smooth and also game will be delivered exactly as you want it to be.

To convert your idea into reality, describing idea will not be only thing that will be important but also what you want as graphics in the game is also as much important as the idea itself. iPad Game Development and iPhone Game Development heavily depend on the graphics and processing of the device. You need to make sure which type of graphics your game will consist of, 2D/3D? And also what type, like would it be like cartoons or are we talking about some serious gaming graphics? This is very important as making changes during the development or designing phase can cost you some money.

I will cover more information in my next article; I hope this initial info will be enough for you to understand the overall structure of requirement presentation for iPhone Game Development and iPad Game Development.
I have talked about this topic before, but it was in brief. This time I will provide more details about how to describe the requirement and how to shortlist the things that you will need to ask to the developers for deciding on the team and also to convert your game idea into reality, via iPad Game Development or iPhone Game Development. If you are new, I work in a well known Game Development company Morpheous and I share my experience with development and also with clients over here, so my experience can be useful to you when you make any development decisions and invest into one.

When you have an idea, you make sure you write it down, this will enable you to go through the raw idea in future if you lose your way in between, as especially when it is about objective of the game and story line. Once you write down your initial thoughts, you can then search some existing games and see if any of them matches what you want to get developed or if not see if it partially matches, this will provide you information on how they have executed the idea and also how the story line plays out. This will also give you an idea of overall representation of the game. iPad Game Development and iPhone Game Development can be an easy venture if you are quite clear of what you want and also have things in written format. Ensuring your objective and features of the game pass to developer on right note is very important, this will make sure that the journey of development will be smooth and also game will be delivered exactly as you want it to be.

To convert your idea into reality, describing idea will not be only thing that will be important but also what you want as graphics in the game is also as much important as the idea itself. iPad Game Development and iPhone Game Development heavily depend on the graphics and processing of the device. You need to make sure which type of graphics your game will consist of, 2D/3D? And also what type, like would it be like cartoons or are we talking about some serious gaming graphics? This is very important as making changes during the development or designing phase can cost you some money.

I will cover more information in my next article; I hope this initial info will be enough for you to understand the overall structure of requirement presentation for iPhone Game Development and iPad Game Development.